Ball of Mystery

The United Fruit Company planted huge quantities of bananas in Costa Rica in the 1930s. Workers clearing tropical forests in the Diquís...

The United Fruit Company planted huge quantities of bananas in Costa Rica in the 1930s. Workers clearing tropical forests in the Diquís Delta, in the country's hot, humid southwest, found in the underbrush numerous stone balls. The original purpose of the balls--and more than 300 of them exist, from a few inches in size to a whopper more than eight feet in diameter--is a mystery.

John W. Hoopes, Ph.D. '87, an anthropologist and associate professor at the University of Kansas, says that the balls "were most likely made about 1,400 to 1,800 years ago. They remained in use for a long time, probably until a.d. 1000, being moved around--to the tops of hills or to islands off the coast--and rearranged."

The balls are perfectly round and usually have polished surfaces. They are of a hard igneous rock called granodiorite. "This material has a fracture pattern somewhat like that of an onion," says Hoopes. "By successive use of heat (building a fire on the stone) and cold (dashing it with cold water), a person could reduce an irregular boulder to a sphere. The greater amount of labor appears to have gone into grinding and polishing."

The ball shown here is three feet, seven inches, in diameter and is said to weigh 2,000 pounds. It was one of two such balls sent in 1964 by the National Museum of Costa Rica to the Central American pavilion at the New York World's Fair. At the conclusion of the fair, one of the balls went to the National Geographic Society and the other to the Peabody Museum at Harvard. (Reportedly, many other Costa Rican antiquities also left the country for good during the 1960s.)

The director of Costa Rica's National Museum in 1964 was Doris Zemurray Stone '30. She was a distinguished archaeologist and ethnographer and a benefactor of the Peabody in many ways. She was also the daughter of Samuel Zemurray, president of United Fruit until his retirement in 1951. Hoopes recalls that when he was a graduate student, the ball was known jokingly at the Peabody as the "Doris Stone."

The banana planters removed the balls from the forest with little notice taken of their locations. Scholars might have been able to see that the positions had significance, perhaps in astronomical observations. Hoopes believes that "the making and moving of the balls was probably an important social activity, perhaps more important than possession of the finished product." The people who made them lived in conical houses with thatched walls and foundations of rounded river cobbles. "We believe that the balls may have sat in front of the houses of prominent people, perhaps as a display of power, of esoteric knowledge, or of control over labor," says Hoopes. Thus, Harvard's ball, in a courtyard by the Peabody Museum, may even now be fulfilling its original function as lawn ornament.

photograph of Doris Stone

 

Most popular

What Trump Means for John Roberts’s Legacy

Executive power is on the docket at the Supreme Court.

This Harvard Scientist Is Changing the Future of Genetic Diseases

David Liu has pioneered breakthroughs in gene editing, creating new therapies that may lead to cures.

Three Harvardians Win Macarthur Fellowships

A mathematician, a political scientist, and an astrophysicist are honored with “genius” grants for their work.

Explore More From Current Issue

Catherine Zipf smiling, wearing striped shirt and dark sweater outdoors.

Preserving the History of Jim Crow Era Safe Havens

Architectural historian Catherine Zipf is building a database of Green Book sites.  

Renaissance portrait of young man thought to be Christoper Marlowe with light beard, wearing ornate black coat with gold buttons and red patterns.

Shakespeare’s Greatest Rival

Without Christopher Marlowe, there might not have been a Bard.

Will Makris in blue checkered suit and red patterned tie standing outdoors by stone column.

A New Haa President at a Tumultuous Time

A career in higher ed inspired Will Makris to give back.